Five Easy Ways to Get Started

Five easy ways to get started with Open Source Software

Schools are using Open Source in many different ways. Some run their ICT on 100% free and open source software (i.e. using an open source operating system such as Linux, and open source applications running on it). Many have a mixture of open source and traditional proprietary (paid for) software - there are lots of open source applications which run on Windows. 

When switching some or all of your ICT to Open Source, the same guidelines apply as for any IT change: don't try to do too much at once, minimise the change from the users' perspective and keep staff and students informed.

This might mean trying open source software out on only a few computers to start with, or only with a small ICT-confident group (such as the ICT subject team and students).

We've identified the five common ways that Open Source Software is successfully introduced into schools.

1. Fix a problem or meet a need

Perhaps the easiest way to introduce Open Source is to use it to fix a problem or meet a need not currently being met. Do you want students to learn 3D modelling or edit video? Or perhaps to enable staff and students to access resources, and submit homework, from their homes? Is there something that would be useful for a particular course or activity but can't be done at the moment? You might need the help of an expert to clarify the requirement and identify the best solution. It could be that no application does exactly what you want; but one of the benefits of Open Source Software is that it can be modified:  just find a programmer who can add on the extra feature you need.

2. Do something cool with desktop applications

Most schools would love to do more with multimedia, but often the software they need turns out to be prohibitively expensive (eg Photoshop). Perhaps only a few copies could be afforded or none at all. Open Source offers some great alternatives, many of professional quality, allowing far wider access to advanced multimedia for students. For image and photo editing, take a look at Gimp. For vector drawing there's Inkscape; Audacity for audio editing; Scribus for desktop publishing; plus applications for video capture, video editing and more. The Open Source licence allows schools to distribute software freely: as well as installing the software on school computers, give copies to students to install at home.

3. Set up a thin client café

Instead of simply discarding PCs that are getting old, make Open Source a useful addition by creating an Internet Café in the school and reusing the old machines. This could use thin clients (small, low running costs, easy management) or old PCs, linked to a server.

What are thin clients?

4. Use Open Source Software on servers

Many modern schools rely on servers to a greater or lesser extent. These server computers might be onsite or in a data centre hundreds of miles away. Users don't access the servers directly; they'll typically do it via software on their PCs. For example, students might use a web browser to access their e-mail on a school web server, or Windows Explorer to access files stored on a school file server.

That gives servers an advantage: it's often possible to move functions onto Open Source Software on servers without the users seeing much, if any, change. The desktop software which is used to access the servers – the browser and file manager in the examples above – doesn’t change at all. Servers have another advantage too: there aren't so many of them. Installing a new application onto hundreds of computers can be a lot of work. Installing it onto one server or just a few is much quicker.

Many schools have decided to keep Windows, with the standard applications, on their desktop PCs while moving to Open Source server alternatives for e-mail, calendaring, file sharing, intranet servers, proxy servers, instant messaging or content filtering. One reason for this is that their technical and teaching staff and students are familiar with the applications and the environment, and don’t want the pain and effort of a major transition, even when the new software holds out the benefit of being free to use.

Take a look at our software directory for examples of server software which schools are using.

5. Install web applications

Web applications run on a web server and are accessed with a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. A big benefit is not needing to change anything on the school’s desktop PCs: they should all have a modern web browser installed already. In schools, the Moodle  Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is possibly the best known web application, but there is no shortage of others offering e-mail, calendaring, wikis (like Wikipedia, itself run on Open Source Software), content management systems for websites, web forums and many more.

Take a look at our software directory for examples of server software which schools are using.

Open Source Software - what to watch out for

Changing ICT services presents a number of technical, administrative and staff development challenges and Open Source is no exception. In fact it presents a few additional challenges, but nothing that can’t be overcome by a bit of evaluation, preparation and planning.

For a start, just like any other software, Open Source Software varies in quality and functionality. Does it do what you want? Is it well documented? Who is the software designed for - beginners, or expert users? Is there a strong online support group to help you when you get stuck? Does it have a good reputation? Does it support open standards (so you could take the files you create in that particular application and open them in a different application)?

The nature of Open Source Software development is that a developer makes their software available to the world while it is still being developed. This is a huge benefit. It allows other software developers to take a look and, if they like what they see, to help make it better. People share and collaborate.

For the unwary user, this is something to be aware of. Usually there will be a version of the software which is the "stable" version, suitable for general use, as well as a development or "beta" version. The latest "beta" version may have attractive extra features but just because they exist doesn't mean they're ready for use in schools as they may not yet be adequately tried and tested. Many applications are under development, and some ideas are abandoned before they reach the point of being ready for general use. Most applications have version numbers (for example, Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 7 or Gimp 2.4). By convention, Open Source Software with a version number below 1.0 is not considered ready for general use. Once the developers believe the application is ready, they'll call it version 1.0 (or higher). There are occasional exceptions to this, but it's a good rule of thumb.

There are other ways to tell if an application is right for your needs. A popular Open Source application will have its own website, so take a look (search on Google or another search engine) and see what information is provided. Does it have forums? If so, how busy are they and how helpful do the answers to problems seem to be? Install the application and give it a try. Does it have good help documentation? Some applications, like the Gimp image editor www.gimp.org, have how-to guides across the web, easily found by searching. 

Reviews in magazines and on websites will often give you a better idea as to whether the software is right for you, and there are attempts such as Business Readiness Review www.openbrr.org to formalise this. If in doubt, ask: there are plenty of online forums where you can say “this is what I want to do: which application would you recommend?” and people who have done similar things will give you the benefit of their experiences.

Example: Gimp image editor

Gimp is an advanced image and photo editor, similar to Adobe Photoshop. Let's take a look at its website www.gimp.org

 

 

• It's under current, active, development: the front page of the website lists the latest stable and development releases (a development release is designed for testers and developers to try out - not everything will work, but it will have the very latest features; a stable release is for normal users).
• It has a page of screenshots and list of features.
• Gimp can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux
• A quick Google search reveals lots of active user forums, such as Gimptalk www.gimptalk.com which also includes how-to guides
• The main Gimp website www.gimp.org has a useful "Get involved" page with lots of suggestions on how people can contribute.

 More benefits of Open Source

The obvious benefit of Open Source Software is getting high quality applications without needing to pay for licence fees. There are other benefits that users often discover as they do more with Open Source.

Open Source licences allow you to install the software on as many computers as you like without paying any more, but that's not all. You're allowed to give the software away to others (so students and teachers can install it on their PCs at home). 

Open Source is about communities: it's a fundamentally different way of creating software, allowing schools to get more from it than just the applications. While it’s absolutely fine to just use the software as a consumer, in some circumstances students and teachers can become part of the communities around the software. They can get involved not just in asking questions, but answering them too. They can take part in improving the software: programming, graphic design, on-line guides, documentation, usability, bug-testing, suggesting new features.

There are lots of ways to participate without being a programmer.

Getting support

Like everything to do with computers, the time comes when schools need support, from planning new implementations to getting systems installed, keeping them running and resolving problems. As with anything IT-related, no-one knows everything so you may need to look around to find the best option.

Luckily, there's no shortage of choices where Open Source is concerned. Many schools find that, for day-to-day problem resolution and how-to questions, the (free) online support from community members is more than sufficient. There are a lot of companies and freelance consultants who provide all the services needed on a commercial basis. Becta and local authorities may also be able to point you in the right direction if you get stuck.

One lesson several schools have learnt is not to rely solely on a single internal expert or champion for any ICT system, and the same for Open Source Software. If that person leaves, there's no support and the kinds of issues that all software has and could be easily fixed with the right knowledge suddenly start turning into feelings or complaints that "this stuff is no good". This tends to be more of a problem with Open Source Software simply because, at the moment, it's less familiar to most users.

Building a small team of people who can both support and champion Open Source Software (and any other developments in your school's ICT) gets round this problem. You can take some of the money saved on licences and spend it on training; or work with a company or freelancer specialising in supporting your software.

Obtaining and Installing Open Source Software

Introduction

There are literally thousands of open source applications available and it can be difficult to know where to begin if you want to try some of them. This section will give an overview of the main ways in which you can obtain open source applications and will then look at some specific examples to show how you can install applications or alternative ways in which you can try them out.

Different types of application

The open source applications most suitable for education fall into three main types:

• Desktop applications – ie those that will run on your computer
• Web-based applications – ie those running via the internet
• Operating systems such as Linux, Ubuntu and Edubuntu – these are not discussed here as they require some technical knowledge; they are covered elsewhere

General concepts

Most open source software is supported by a community of developers (ranging from one person to a team of hundreds) and the way in which software is made available is broadly similar for all applications.

Most software will be available from its own Project website – for example Moodle is available from www.moodle.org and Open Office from www.openoffice.org (for more information on these and other applications see the Directory). Some projects do not have their own website and may have basic information on Sourceforge (see below).

The main projects discussed on this site have a number of key elements in common which can be found on their project websites:

• Supported by an active community – of those people developing and using the software
• Documentation on the software – which will outline what you need to do to obtain, install and use the software
• Forums providing support – often from the development team, but also from people using the software. The forums can be an excellent way of getting support and solutions to any questions you have about the software.

Where to obtain open source desktop applications

Open source software is unlike commercial software as you do not go online or to a shop and order a box containing a CD. Open source software is usually obtained by downloading it from a website. Many of the desktop applications are quick and easy to install, and this section gives you advice and information on where to obtain the software and how to download and install it.

Listed below are some of the sources from which open source software can be obtained.

The OpenDisc Project

The OpenDisc is a collection of some of the best and most popular open source applications. The Disc is available to download as an ISO file [definition] that can be burnt on a CD. It is then straightforward to install the software from the CD onto your computer. The file size is approximately 700MB so download will require a reasonably fast internet connection or will take a very long time.

The Open Disc contains a variety of software which will run on the Windows operating system, making it easy for you to try out the selected applications, including OpenOffice, Audacity, Firefox, Gimp and Inkscape.

In addition, there is the OpenEducationDisc with open source applications relevant for students aged 10 – 21.

Menu screen from OpenEducationDisc

With both discs you can click on the application logo to find out about the software, or click the install button to quickly install the software onto your computer.

Portable Apps

Another low risk way of trying out open source applications is with PortableApps http://portableapps.com/ . Portable Apps are Open Source applications that can be downloaded and installed on portable media (such as a USB flash drive or an external disc) so you don't have to install anything on your computer. The software includes applications such as Inkscape, Audacity, GIMP and OpenOffice.

From the download page http://portableapps.com/download select the suite to download.

Download page from PortableApps website

The instructions are on the site. The concept is that portable apps installs an Open Source menu program onto your USB flash drive from which you can then choose and add a wide range of programs to your key. The applications are installed on the USB flash drive and so any computer that has the drive inserted into a usb port effectively has the software instantly installed but not onto its hard drive. Take out the USB flash drive and the applications are uninstalled.

Installation wizard from PortableApps

The wizard will guide you through the installation of portable apps – and detailed instructions are on the website:

When you run portable apps you will see a full list of available applications.

PortableApps list of applications

 

To use launch one of the applications, click on the link and you will have the software running instantly.

OpenOffice Calc running on PortableApps

 As with all Open Source software it is perfectly legal to copy all or some of the applications to other USB flash drives. Every child in the school could have one to use at home and at school contributing to social inclusion and bridging the digital divide. Since all the applications move with the drive, you can use them on any computer without having to install anything and without leaving any code behind when you finish.

Sourceforge

Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/) is the repository for over 100,000 open source projects. The site is aimed at developers and more technical users and contains open source applications in various stages of development. For a novice user, the Sourceforge site can be somewhat intimidating, but if you are looking for a particular open source application, you are likely to find it there.

Obtaining open source software from project websites

Most of the open source projects referred to on this site will be supported by their own development and user community and will have a website dedicated to the project – for example Moodle has an extensive website www.moodle.org

These sites will provide a copy of the open source software for you to download. In addition, most sites will have:

• Information about the software, including a list of key features, so you can understand what the software can do for you
• A forum – where you can read information about using the software, and, if necessary, post questions seeking help for a problem
• Documentation on how to install and use the software
• Support options – this may be available free or some projects will charge for technical support. The best place to start is with the forums as you will often find someone has experienced the same issue and has posted the solution on the forum

Some sites may also have demonstrations of the software in action and may list books about using the software – many of the more popular open source projects (Moodle, Drupal, Gimp and OpenOffice for example) have manuals and other texts commercially published.

Moodle teaching techniques and OpenOffice for Dummies

 

You need to decide which version of the software to install – this will depend on your operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux; or your server configuration). You will also need to identify which is the latest stable version of the software as many projects make development versions (often called beta versions or release candidates) available for the community to test and these are usually not stable enough for general use.

Most software will be downloadable in the form of a zip file – which you will need to unzip. Open source applications to do this are available (http://www.7-zip.org/ ). For desktop applications, it is generally a case of following the steps in the install wizard and installation should only take a few moments.

Inkscape setup wizard

When it is complete you will be able to launch the application and start using it.

Trying out web applications

In order to develop and run your own web based open source application, you will need a server or hosting package [definitions]. However, there are ways in which you can try out some of these applications without having to set up your own server or hosting. The two main ways are:

• Using sandboxes
• Trying free, hosted versions of open source applications

Trying web applications in sandboxes or demo sites

A sandbox is an area where you are literally free to play with an application. Some open source project sites make these areas available. In addition there are companies who provide access to sandbox areas for people to use. You can often try out many of the features of the application within a sandbox – the only thing to be aware of is that anything you do within the area will probably be deleted after a short time – sandboxes are usually reset on a regular basis.

Examples:

There are areas to try out the functionality of Wikis such as Wikipedia and MediaWiki

Try editing a Wiki on the Wikipedia sandbox

Try out MediaWiki - based on the software that was originally written for Wikipedia

Some hosting companies provide areas that act as demonstrations for their services, for example Pteppic (who provide support and hosting for Moodle) have areas on their website where you can see how Moodle works. If you are considering using Moodle, you can ask them to set up a trial area for you to try out. http://www.pteppic.net/

The Moodle project website contains a demo course outlining the key Moodle features http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=34

Opensourcecms is a website created specifically to give people the opportunity to try out selected web based open source applications. A wide variety of software can be tried out on the site, with the demo areas being wiped clean every two hours, so content you post will be deleted after a short time. This site gives you the chance to login as the administrator for the demo software so you can see how you can add content and get a good idea of what the software can do. Software available includes:

WordPress blogging software 

PHPBB – A bulletin board application

Moodle - VLE

Dokeos - e-learning and content management

Claroline - e-learning and e-working platform

Coppermine – image gallery

Limesurvey - online survey tool

Try out a free, hosted version of open source software

Some open source projects are available via free hosted applications. This generally means you can sign up for an account and can create, for example, your own blog. You may find that you are restricted to a limited file / storage space or have to pay for additional (premium) features, but will be able to try out the application before you decide whether to set up your own version on a server or hosting. You may decide the hosted version you sign up for is sufficient for your needs.

Examples

WordPress –is an open source blogging application. www.wordpress.org provides access to the software code that you can download and install on your own server or hosting package. www.wordpress.com is an associated website that allows you to create your own blog by registering for an account. The basic account is free – more advanced features and additional storage space can be purchased.

WordPress blog sign-up page

Edublogs http://edublogs.org/ is an education-focused, hosted version of WordPress that also allows you to sign up for a free blog. The website also provides access to 1000s of educational blogs and has good advice for teaching with blogs.

Edublogs home page

 

A technician's view

By Russell Eales. Russell is based at John Port school in South Derbyshire, and supports a number of primary schools’ ICT services.

In my role as Community ICT Technician for a local Technology college, I give support to 12 local primary schools, installing and repairing hardware, installing and configuring software, setting up wired and wireless networks and designing websites. I also provide product advice, training and lesson support – so basically I'm kept fairly busy!

As a relatively fresh eye in the educational world, I must say I was intrigued by the way decisions are made regarding hardware and software – particularly software – I've noticed that some of the most popular programmes, although good for curriculum work, don't seem to have much comparison to anything in the real, Microsoft “monopolised” world.

I am not in any way anti-Microsoft – let's get that straight from the start, it's just I wonder in these budget conscious days, why we continue to pour money into the ICT pit without considering more economical alternatives.

It may be that we rely on the local authorities to advise on what we need as we don't feel confident enough to make decisions on our own – It may be that we just use what have on our own PCs because it’s what we are familiar with.

Let's look at a couple of examples - Everyone has to be aware that Microsoft Office is the de facto main event on the regular PC.   It costs money – not just for the programme, but (with many education licences) you also need an additional licence for every PC you put it on which can add up to scary figures – So, why do we use it? Perhaps because we are not aware, (or made aware) of the alternatives -

Open Source software is beginning to get more popular, it's “open” because the nuts and bolts (“source code”) that go to make the programme are freely available to everyone, so anyone who knows what they are doing can adapt, improve and experiment with the application for the benefit of all. That’s probably beyond the scope of most of us, what we generally need is something that works and doesn’t have a nasty tendency to crash and lose all our hard work – But the choice exists.

What's in it for the software maker? It may sound strange and unusual, but they just think software should be free under a world wide licence agreement called the GPL (Global Programme Licence) – some do ask for donations to fund the work, but that's entirely optional.

For example?

OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) is free, there's a word you don't hear very often – It's a full office suite which has very similar functionality to Microsoft Office, including creating PDF's. It takes up less precious machine resources – It looks almost exactly the same as the Microsoft version, so the crossover (if there is one) to and from the world of Microsoft would be a small one. This excludes the newest (and unfamiliar looking) 2007 MS Office version where Microsoft seems to have gone off on a tangent, perhaps to be more unique?

Open Office opens up and saves as many formats as you care to name.  It’s compatible with Microsoft, Corel, Lotus – you can even set it to open and save in a particular format as standard. The big point again is it is FREE and you can put it on as many machines as you want, without restrictions. The OpenOffice suite has an equivalent for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Publisher and even a mathematical formula programme (I don't use that much).

Open Office Impress - typical screen

Open Office Calc - typical screen

So question 1 – why are you paying for something you can get for free?

There are lots of alternatives to most commercial software, most do the job just as well, if not better than the one you have to pay for, all you have to do is look.

So, you get the idea, there is life out there that you don't have to pay through the nose for – sometimes on a yearly basis.

I realise that the majority of programmes recommended by Local Authorities are tried and tested and tick all the boxes for the curriculum requirements. But have we got it the right way round? And shouldn’t they be looking after the interests of the schools by using the most efficient and economical software, not necessarily the most obvious? An increasing number of schools are actually trying to do this.

Should we not be looking firstly at what we want to achieve, linking as many aspects as possible in the best possible manner then work backwards until we end up with a basic requirement for software? Then look if there is an open source option.

The less software you have to install, the less pressure is put on the computer’s hardware – So it might just last that little bit longer saving even more money.

An obvious additional advantage is that students can easily use the same software at home as they do at school – without incurring any costs.

Time to get controversial and take a deep breath – Why use Windows at all?

Because it's safe, that’s why – we may use strong language about it (quite a lot of the time in my experience, but not in front of the children!), but it's what we all know, love and loathe and we want our kids to be able to do the same – that's what we are doing after all isn't it: teaching children to use Windows?

There are many many alternatives to Windows, most of which are built on a operating system called Linux, created by a team headed by Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Most of the versions or “flavours” of Linux are free and will run on a lower specified PC that wouldn't entertain a modern version of Windows so all of those aged PCs in the storeroom (sorry, are you still using them?) could be put to good use…

A lot of schools who have dared to be different and save money at the same time, run Windows on some PCs and Linux systems on others, these systems co-exist quite happily on the same network. A goodly number of the big servers that provide the websites we see every day are running a version of Linux, because it's secure, reliable and resilient, not prone to crashing or freezing and not susceptible to 99.9% of viruses.

There will be questions about support and about loading software and the like.

Support is available from the bigger distributors of Linux like Ubuntu, Suse, RedHat and from the masses of user forums on line. (one of the great community features of Open Source Software, is that knowledgeable people collaborate not only to make the software, but to help others use it, including newcomers). The only place you may not get much help from is your local LEA ICT unit, unless one of the folks there has incidental experience – in which case he or she should be in great demand.

I've tried in most of the schools that I go to, to encourage them to have at least one PC dedicated to an alternative view of the world. Some have more and indeed one has a small independent suite consisting of 10 PCs all running a Linux variant called “http://www.puppylinux.org/">Puppy Linux” This is a brilliant operating system for all those ancient PC’s, it even runs from a USB memory stick if required, but I have it running on PC’s with a scant 32 and 64mb of memory – Believe me, it runs just as fast as XP as well! Even if it’s just used for internet browsing – It still counts as a valuable resource for the students and can boost the student/PC ratio.

One of the most popular linux distributions for schools is called EduBuntu, a “flavour” of Ubuntu built especially for Primary schools – to quote their Blurb:

 “Edubuntu builds to be a complete and ready to use educational environment. As such, Edubuntu comes pre-installed with a complete office suite, teaching and learning programs, pre-school resources and much more across a range of categories. Here is a brief summary and some screenshots for the most popular Edubuntu packages, and if you need more, Edubuntu has thousands of additional applications ready for you to install.”

This is available as a desktop or server version, and works with most PC hardware.  The installation disks are free on request. Most of the CDs can also be run as a “live” version (ie booting directly from CD) so you can try it out before committing time to a full installation process.

There is also a piece of software called “Wubi” that allows you to install a Linux operating system on your Windows PC – You just get an option to “boot” into Linux or Windows when you switch on – if you don’t want to keep it, you just go into Add/Remove programmes and uninstall – Simple!

Linux PCs also connect fine to windows servers and network printers (sometimes with more ease than you can from a Windows PC). In fact you can do practically everything you can do with a windows network. The only thing you can't do (without a bit of work anyway) is use Windows programmes – but then again you have to pay for those don't you? And we've already covered that one.

Links:

• EduForge: http://eduforge.org/
• SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/index.php
• OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org/
• Edubuntu: http://www.edubuntu.org/
• Linux: http://www.linux.org/info/
• Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/ 

Top Tips for Selecting Open Source Software

This article is reproduced, with permission, from the website of OSS-Watch, a project providing information and guidance on open source software for FE and HE. Its messages are equally applicable to schools.

Performance and reliability are the principal criteria for selecting software. In most procurement exercises however, price is also a determining factor when comparing quotes from multiple vendors. Price comparisons do have a role, but usually not in terms of a simple comparison of purchase prices. Rather, price issues tend to arise when comparing total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes both the purchase price and ongoing costs for support (and licence renewal) over the real life span of the product.

Some frameworks have been developed to help those in IT procurement assess open source software. These can help determine the appropriateness of particular applications in specific situations, or to evaluate different open source products against one another. They are not so well suited for comparing open source software against proprietary alternatives. Examples of such frameworks include the Business Readiness Rating (BRR) and the Open Source Maturity Model (OSMM).

Reputation

Does the software have a good reputation for performance and reliability? Here, word of mouth reports from people whose opinion you trust is often key. Some open source software has a very good reputation in the industry, e.g. Apache web server, GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), Linux, Samba etc. You should be comparing best of breed open source software against its proprietary peers. Discussing your plans with someone with experience of using open source software and an awareness of the packages you are proposing to use is vital.

Ongoing effort

Is there clear evidence of ongoing effort to develop the open source software you are considering? Has there been recent work to fix bugs and meet user needs? Active projects usually have regularly updated web pages and busy development email lists. They usually encourage the participation of those who use the software in its further development. If everything is quiet on the development front, it might be that work has been suspended or even stopped.

Standards and interoperability

Choose software which implements open standards. Interoperability with other software is an important way of getting more from your investment. Good software does not reinvent the wheel, or force you to learn new languages or complex data formats.

Support (Community)

Does the project have an active support community ready to answer your questions concerning deployment? Look at the project's mailing list archive, if available. If you post a message to the list and receive a reasonably prompt and helpful reply, this may be a sign that there is an active community of users out there ready to help. Good practice suggests that if you wish to avail yourself of such support, you should also be willing to provide support for other members of the community when you are able.

Support (Commercial)

Third party commercial support is available from a diversity of companies, ranging from large corporations such as IBM and Sun Microsystems, to specialist open source organizations such as Red Hat and MySQL, to local firms and independent contractors. Commercial support is most commonly available for more widely used products or from specialist companies who will support any product within their particular specialism.

Version

When was the last stable version of the software released? Virtually no software, proprietary or open source, is completely bug free. If there is an active development community, newly discovered bugs will be fixed and patches to the software or a new version will be released. For enterprise use, you need the most recent stable release of the software, where there have been many recent releases in the unstable branch of development. There is, of course, always the option of fixing bugs yourself, since the source code of the software will be available to you. But that rather depends on your (or your team's) skill set and time commitments.

Version 1.0.

Open source projects usually follow the release early and often motto. While in development they may have very low version numbers. Typically a product needs to reach its 1.0 release prior to being considered for enterprise use. This is not to say that many pre-1.0 versions of software are not very good indeed, e.g. Mozilla's 0.8 release of its Firefox browser was polished and mature.

Documentation

Open source software projects may lag behind in their documentation for end users, but they are typically very good with their development documentation. You should be able to trace a clear history of bug fixes, feature changes, etc. This may provide the best insight into whether the product, at its current point in development, is fit for your purposes.

Skill set

Consider the skill set of yourself and your colleagues. Do you have the appropriate skills to deploy and maintain this software? If not, will you employ third party contractors or will you implement a training plan to match your skills to the task? Remember, this is not simply true for open source software, but also for proprietary software. These training costs should be included when comparing TCOs for different products.

Project Development Model

Open source development should not be chaotic, although it can sometimes look that way. An open source project should have a very clear development process that describes how contributions are made and how they are evaluated for inclusion. It should also describe how contributors investing considerable resource in customisations can become a part of, or influence to, the project management. This is to reassure significant contributors that their contributions will remain available and valuable to them in the future. In some projects there is a formal structure governing this kind of development, in others the structure is fluid, in both cases the rules of engagement need to be clear.

Licence

Arguably, open source software is as much about the licence as it is about the development methodology. Read the licence. Recognised open source licences have well defined conditions for your contribution of code to the ongoing development of the software or the incorporation of the code into other packages. If you are not familiar with these licences or with the one used by the software you are considering, take the time to clarify conditions of use.

Coverage

Many open source products are generalist and must be specialized before use. Generally speaking the more effort required to specialize a product, the greater is its generality. A more narrowly focused product will reduce the effort required to deploy it, but may lack flexibility. An example of the former is GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), and an example of the latter might be the Evolution mail client, which works well out of the box but is only suitable for the narrow range of tasks for which it was intended.

Note: This document is derived from the document www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/tips.xml published by www.oss-watch.ac.uk. The latest quality assured OSS-Watch version is always available on the OSS-Watch site. Unless otherwise indicated, this page is © 2008 University of Oxford. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 England & Wales licence.

Business Readiness Rating

This article is reproduced, with permission, from the website of OSS-Watch, a project providing information and guidance on open source software for FE and HE. Its messages are equally applicable to schools.

How does an institution or company decide which software it should use? One traditional approach would be to invite representatives from software companies to come and demonstrate their product's capabilities. If the institution were looking for something more specific and customised, they might need to put their requirements out to tender. The process for procuring open source software from outsourcing companies is no different. However, open source offers many more options than closed source, ranging from fully outsourced to wholly internally supported.

Furthermore, some open source projects only offer a community support model but even without commercial support the project may be of significant interest to organisations willing to engage directly with the project.

1. The BRR framework

A number of frameworks exist to help IT and purchasing managers make informed choices about Open Source Software (OSS). These include the Open Source Maturity Model (OSMM from Navica), Qualification and Selection of Open Source Software (QSOS), and the Business Readiness Rating (BRR), which is the subject of this article. All frameworks examine issues of OSS maturity, i.e. whether software is ready for mission-critical enterprise use. There are many tens of thousands of open source projects hosted on SourceForge and other such sites, all in various stages of development. Some have effectively been abandoned, some are at early stages of development, some are good enough to be used in limited ways in a commercial or institutional environment, others are finished enough to be employed in place of, or in addition to, established proprietary products. The BRR helps determine which stage a project is currently at and whether it is likely to progress to a later stage.

BRR is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon West, O'Reilly CodeZoo, SpikeSource, and the Intel Corporation. It is designed along open source lines, encouraging feedback and community development. It is intended to provide a standard framework. It suggests that users report their evaluations back to the open source community. And it weighs success factors to suit specific settings and user groups.

2. How it works

The BRR evaluation model involves four steps: a quick assessment to draw up a short list of software packages to evaluate; the ranking and weighting of the selection criteria; data gathering for each criteria; calculation and publication of results.

The BRR posits twelve criteria that can be used to evaluate software once an initial shortlist of products has been established. It suggests that only the six or seven most important criteria are actually used in the assessment. The criteria are:

• Functionality - does the software meet user requirements?
• Usability - is the software intuitive / easy to install / easy to configure / easy to maintain?
• Quality - is the software well designed, implemented, and tested?
• Security - how secure is the software?
• Performance - how does the software perform against standard benchmarks?
• Scalability - can the software cope with high-volume use?
• Architecture - is the software modular, portable, flexible, extensible, and open. Can it be integrated with other components?
• Support - how many sources of support are available?
• Documentation - is there good quality documentation?
• Adoption - has the software been adopted by the community, the market, and the industry?
• Community - is the community for the software active and lively?
• Professionalism - what level of professionalism does the development process and project organisation exhibit?

The evaluator decides which of these criteria are most important for the software to be successful in the environment it is to be used and for the purpose which it is to fulfil, weighting the criteria accordingly. Next, the evaluator assesses each piece of software using about 20 specific tests (the precise number will depend on which criteria are being evaluated). Some of these tests rely on the kind of information that is readily available from most open source project communities, others require more work.

As an example: one of the tests that the BRR recommends involves awarding a piece of software 5 points to its community metric if the average volume of its general mailing list over the last six months has been greater than 720 messages per month. If this figure is less than 30, only 1 point is awarded.

Evaluators should be aware that undertaking a full BRR assessment takes time. Functionality testing requires the evaluator to carefully consider what the standard feature set required by an average user might be, and apply this rigorously. Each piece of software being evaluated needs to be installed, used, and in some instances performance tested. To properly calculate usability, the evaluator will, naturally enough, have to test the software on a real end user. Expect the full evaluation process to take several days.

Once the evaluator has worked their way through the relevant tests, and applied the appropriate weightings to the score for each criteria, they arrive at a final score for each product. The complete scoring chart, along with full best practice guidelines for each of the four steps are provided in the BRR white paper, available from the BRR wiki.

The BRR does not claim to be a finished, polished framework for software evaluation, although it does claim to be complete enough to allow IT staff from different companies and organizations to set their own assessment criteria, and perform their own full evaluations. Some of the tests that the BRR recommends cannot be applied to proprietary software, so it is only really viable for comparing and assessing OSS. Users are encouraged to contribute to the project's discussion forum and feed back their findings.

3. An Example from the Open University >

The Open University used the BRR evaluation framework to assess which Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) they should adopt. VLEs are software packages that facilitate teaching and learning by providing access to a number of components via a single interface. Typically these components will include tools for course management, noticeboards, chat rooms, self-assessment quizzes, and repositories of learning objects such as texts or videos, etc. VLEs are of particular value to distance learners such as those enrolled at the Open University.

After assessing their specific needs and using the BRR accordingly to evaluate the various VLEs on the market, the Open University came to the conclusion that the open source VLE Moodle met their requirements far better than any of its rivals. The Open University has since demonstrated its commitment to Moodle by deciding to invest more than £4M in developing core Moodle components as well as customising it for their particular users.

To see how Moodle scored against its rivals using the BRR framework, see Niall Sclater's presentation to the OSS Watch Open Source and Sustainability conference, 2006 (slide 5): [http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/events/2006-04-10-12/presentations/niallsclater.pdf].

Note: This document is derived from the document www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/brr.xml published by www.oss-watch.ac.uk. The latest quality assured OSS-Watch version is always available on the OSS-Watch site. Unless otherwise indicated, this page is © 2008 University of Oxford. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 England & Wales licence.

 

Beating the Credit Crunch

Dr John Spencer gives a guide to tackling ICT overspend.

The Credit Crunch is nothing to celebrate, particularly if you are someone who faces unemployment. I want to present aspects of the economic landscape positively without descending into ' a bit of hardship will do us all good' rhetoric.
The area that I think will benefit from a new realistic attitude to consumption is computing, in particular computing in an educational context. The current edu-ICT model is unsustainable. It simply costs too much and wastes too much. BECTA, the Government's educational technology quango has been saying so publicly for years.
In times of plenty no-one noticed the billions of print-outs, the mega-watts of power computers consumed and the enormous sums of money spent on software licences. The really good news is that excellent ICT provision does not depend on huge amounts of money. Below is a simple guide to tackling ICT over-spend.

 

Step One

Stop paying for expensive proprietary software licences.
You may have noticed that high quality free, open source software, free to download and legally distribute now exists for nearly all the applications commonly used in education. They work on Windows and Mac computers as well as they do on Linux computers.
Here is a list of a few of the best enterprise quality products: Linux, Xen, Open Office 3, Firefox, Chrome, Thunderbird, Evolution, Pidgin, Scribus, Inkscape, Gimp 2.6, Moodle, MPlayer. Don't know them all or what they could replace? Then it's time you did. Download and try them. You'll be amazed.

Step Two

You have now downloaded the free stuff mentioned above and more (one gets carried away), evaluated it for yourself, and have just cancelled £10,000 of licence fee renewals. But what to do with the money?
Easy, stop wasting electricity; it is very expensive.
The normal PC has a 400 watt PSU and a 50 watt LCD watt monitor. Even on standby it uses 130 (plus) watts. The average server stack (in education) running 24/7 has 5 x 700
watt PSUs + airconditioning (5kw). Today the performance needed to run Office type suites at a crisp pace can be had from desktop computers drawing only 20 watts max. Check out the Dell Hybrid Mini or the Eee Box.
Spend your upfront licence savings on replacing some of your gas-guzzlers with low energy desktops and use free virtualisation software to convert four hardware servers into one.
Sit back and next year, count the money saved on power and replace the rest of your everyday stock with low energy equivalents. How much? Bear in mind that an average 1000 student setting spends between £15,000 and £20,000 per year on ICT related electricity costs and the Eee Box costs £156 ex vat.

Step Three

Ok, you are still not satisfied with the huge savings you have made, but also want to increase your students' classroom use of computers?
Simple, stop owning computers!
Make use of the computers (be they netbooks or laptops) that students own. Educational establishments have invested huge amounts of money in computers, infrastructure and connectivity but it is too much to ask as well that they should provide and support a computer for each and every student especially when many have their own. However, for all sorts of reasons student-owned computers are not suitable for class use.
The answer is to make use of thin-client computing. Free, open source thin-client terminal servers provide licence-free applications to all. What is more, nearly all student owned hardware can PXE-boot via wired outlets or securely over wireless access points into the server.
PXE means that the boot is from the computer's network hardware into a standardised desktop without touching the owner's installed software and operating system, whether the latter is working fully or not! Thin-client systems allow the student's hardware to lead a double life as a personal computer and as a terminal-client accessing the establishment's applications, Intranet (including VLE) and filtered Internet. With a thin client model you only have to provide the server, the infrastructure, the Internet and the Learning Platform. That's enough for anyone!

These three simple steps could slash ICT costs by up to 90%.
If everyone is using a computer to access information on your Internet and VLE then why are you printing 3000 A4 paper sheets per student per year?
Now is the time to take stock and cut costs but at the same time improve resourcing. Impossible? You know it can be done step by step. Good luck and have fun.

Dr John Spencer  has 30 years of teaching experience and is a developer for OCR exam board ICT syllabuses. He is Head of Education for Sirius Corporation PLC, the UK's leading Open Source services group, and is totally committed to reducing ICT costs in education.

This article was first published in ICT Skills Briefing, Issue 11, March 2009. (C) Simon Boyd Publishing Limited and original
authors, all rights reserved.
For subscription information on ICT Skills Briefing please contact: CIRCA Ltd, FREEPOST ANG10945, Cambridge, CB1 2BR T: 01223 564334 E: ict [at] circaworld [dot] com W: www.basicskillsbulletin.co.uk/ict_skills/index.cfm
 

Open Source Software on OS X for Mac

The Open Source Community is a broad church, gaining strength from its diversity. Whilst many of us use Linux on at least one of our machines, there's a (growing) number of educators who favour Macs. The operating system upon which Macs run (OSX) is based on Unix, a system to which Linux is closely allied.

Open Source Software (OSS) for Macs is an oft-neglected topic so hopefully the recommendations below will serve to go some way to redress that imbalance!

Well-known OSS applications also available for OSX

• Audacity (sound recorder & editor)
• Firefox (web browser)
• FreeMind (mind-mapping program)
• The GIMP (image editor)
• Handbrake (DVD ripper and video converter - formerly OSX-specific!)
• KompoZer (web page editor)
• Miro (HD video player & Bittorrent client)
• OpenOffice.org (and NeoOffice - office suites)
• VLC (versatile video player)
• XMind (mind-mapping program - can host mindmaps online)

OSS applications that are OSX-specific

• Adium (instant messaging client)
• Cyberduck (FTP client)
• ffmpegX (video transcoder)
• Q (an emulator allowing Linux, Windows and other operating systems to be run in a virtual machine)
• Quicksilver ('unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data')
• Romeo (control Mac via Bluetooth)
• Seashore (image editor)
• SimplyBurns (CD/DVD burning software)
• Transmission (Bittorrent client)

A wonderful, wonderful suite of programs is available for OSX called MacLibre. This features a wealth of OSS, auto-updates, and is a graduate of the Google Summer of Code competition. I would recommend any Mac user to install this - what have you got to lose?

More Open Source software for OSX is listed at Open Source Mac. A more comprehensive list is available, of course, at Sourceforge.

Are YOU using your Mac in the classroom? We'd love to hear what OSS you're running!

Open Source Software: What School Leaders Should Know

A post by secondary school modern languages faculty leader, fast-track teacher and freelance writer Laura Walker, published originally at http://mrslwalker.com/index.php/2009/04/26/open-source-software/, reproduced here with permission.

Open Source Software (OSS) is computer software that can be used, changed and distributed by users. It’s usually free of charge, and it’s becoming increasingly popular. So why should school leaders pay attention?  Mark Clarkson, ICT teacher explains:  “Open Source tools make it easy for students, parents and staff to access software without the need to buy expensive licenses or to illegally download programs. Microsoft Office ranges in price from £100 to over £500, whereas OpenOffice - which features a powerful word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation tool equivalent to Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint; comes completely free of charge.”

What are the benefits of using OSS?

Using OSS is likely to reduce licensing costs for schools, and BECTA’s 2005 study shows that “for OSS schools, cost per PC at primary school was half that of non-OSS schools, and cost per PC at secondary school level was around 20% less that that of the non-OSS schools.” However, the benefits go far beyond cost reduction. Miles Berry, Headteacher and BECTA Open Source Schools Community Manager told me that there are four fundamental advantages of using OSS in schools, which allows the freedom to:

•    use the software however you choose
•    study and adapt the software so it fits more closely to a school’s own particular needs
•    improve on what’s there already, through participating in the project’s community
•    distribute programs to students and teachers, so they can use the same platform at home and school

Schools using open source have found other benefits too, such as improved reliability, the chance to use innovative, cutting edge technology, and a greener, more sustainable approach to computing. It all sounds pretty liberating!

OSS is more flexible and adaptable than proprietary software. Mark said “A commercial software developer aims to make money by charging for upgrades or extra functionality - sometimes deliberately limiting functionality so as to avoid competing with another product. With open-source software the opposite is true. Software developers want to meet the needs and requests of the end-users”. There also is a valuable educational message about the advantages of collaboration here too, as open-source software products are created by teams of people who choose to work together towards a common goal. Open-source software is frequently upgraded to take into account recent security issues, bug fixes and essential features.” Moodle, the open-source learning platform, is a great example. It is almost endlessly customisable and modular so that the user can make it their own, and there is a thriving community of committed Moodlers sharing ideas, support and good practice.

Are there any pitfalls my school should be aware of?

I asked Mark whether inertia was a bit problem in getting staff and students on board with using OSS. He said: “Fear, rather than inertia, is a significant factor. People feel comfortable with the names they know and are wary of upsetting the apple cart. There is also an image that ‘free’ software must be given away because it is rubbish and nobody would pay money for it.” Mark also suggested that it takes time to get to know new systems and senior leaders will need to factor training and support into their planning. Generally speaking, it would seem that in the UK we are slightly behind the curve on this. In Eastern Europe, the use of OSS in schools is standard practice.

Will my school get criticised during inspection for using OSS?

Miles said “Becta is increasingly supportive of open source software in schools, publishing some interesting case studies and a study of total cost of ownership savings a few years ago, highlighting concerns over certain proprietary operating systems and office suites, and now supporting the Open Source Schools community of practice for UK teachers and techies. New Cabinet Office guidance is that open source should be the preferred solution for publicly funded projects when all other factors are equal, and Becta is likely to have a key role in advising schools on this.”  Ofsted’s recent report on The Importance of ICT also does much to encourage schools to explore open source for themselves, citing examples of the way open source encourages the development of greater flexibility and transferable ICT capability, as well as helping schools obtain best value in procurement.

Miles added “As OFSTED’s report makes clear, too much ICT in too many schools has been concentrated on training children to use a particular suite of applications rather than in developing a broader ICT capability including the ability to critically reflect on software itself. Open source lets schools do far more with their limited ICT budgets, but the vision has to be there for this. Schools also worry about ongoing support of open source, but those who have tried it generally find the support from online open source project communities far better than that via tech. support helplines, and, of course, commercial support is readily available for the better known applications.”

I’d like to find out more. What do I do next?

Miles urges school leaders to find out more. First and foremost it is well worth encouraging ICT teachers and network managers to join the Open Source Schools community (http://opensourceschools.org.uk,) and to participate in the OSS ‘unconference’ at NCSL on 20th July 2009. Mark recommends: “Senior Leaders in school should try using OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, look for examples of Moodle learning platforms and calculate the budget savings in replacing some Windows computers with open-source platforms.”

There is no need to change everything at once. OSS can work well side-by-side with proprietary software. The key thing, particularly during this age of budget cuts, is to look at the ICT curriculum and resources and ask “could we be doing more?” and “could we be doing this for less?”.

Thanks to:

Mark Clarkson @mwclarkson on Twitter

Mark Clarkson is an ICT teacher and Assistant Head of Department in an Outstanding 11-18 school in the North East of England. He works in a school which uses Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems and is a firm believer in education and choice when it comes to making decisions about technology.

Miles Berry @mberry on Twitter

Miles Berry is head of Alton Convent Prep and community manager for the Becta supported Open Source Schools community. He is a fellow of Mirandanet, Naace, the RSA and the British Computer Society, and speaks and writes widely on education technology. In addition to open source, his professional interests include programming in schools, knowledge management, informal learning and learner voice.

Resources

• http://happyhippy.edublogs.org/
• http://milesberry.net
• http://opensourceschools.org.uk
• http://www.theopendisc.com/education/
• http://portableapps.com/
• http://php.opensourcecms.com/
• http://publications.becta.org.uk/
• http://opensourceschools.org.uk/unconference09

The above article is © Laura Walker, 2009. All rights reserved.